More and more parents are using foods like avocado to wean their babies.
The soft tree fruit, cous cous, and quinoa are all becoming more common for mothers and fathers when it comes to weaning their little ones.
A new study by WaterWipes has shown that up to 40 percent of babies are eating avocado on the regular.
However, this still hasn’t knocked the most popular – and traditional – foods off the top spot, with the vast majority still eating foods like sausages, mash, and stew when being weaned.
Despite this, most parents say they still don’t know what they should be feeding their babies.
75 percent admitted that they really weren’t sure what foods they should be giving a weaning child, with one in six saying that they let the amount of mess left dictate whether a food was a success or not.
A lot of the time it, unsurprisingly, isn’t with most parents finding food under their babies’ feet, behind their ears, and under their bottoms.
This comes after weaning expert Siobhan Berry gave her five tips for successfully weaning your baby.
This is them:
1) Set the scene:
From six months sit your baby in their high chair and offer a bowl of purée or finger food, a beaker and a spoon. Demonstrate eating yourself to show your baby how they should proceed.
2) Give your baby control:
We understand why this might be a bit daunting mums! However, by allowing your baby to self-feed either by offering a bowl with some of the purée while you also feed baby or by offering finger foods, your baby will have a positive experience with his or her food.
3) Offer your baby lots of variety:
Seasonal fruits and vegetables are wonderfully colourful and they come with a unique taste and texture. Recipes such as Beetroot and Plum purée show your baby that food is colourful and they will be much more likely to accept these foods at the toddler stage, Siobhan says.
4) Embrace the mess!
Sorry to break it to you mums, but Siobhan encourages children to have messy mealtimes to get the full sensory experience.
5) Hold off on wipes until the end:
It might be tempting, but hold off with wipes until your child is finished eating so they have a nice experience of mealtimes.
Six months is just the average time parents decide to wean children, but it goes without saying, every child and every situation is different.
And remember, no one’s house and no one’s baby is perfect, so don’t stress too much about the mess.
